FIRST AUSTRALIAN SETTLEMENT. 



order, therefore, to keep up a supply of stock for the use of settlers, 

 a " General Order" was issued by the Governor in 1803, as .follows : 

 "For the preservation, increase, or breeding of stock, portions of lands 

 there reserved or set apart and leased in those districts as under 

 Nelson district, in Mulgrave Place, 5650 acres ; Richmond Hill dis- 

 trict, Mulgrave Place, 5130 acres, land bounded by Smith and Webb's 

 farms on Yellow Munday's Lagoon, south side of the Hawkesbury 

 River ; Phillip district in Mulgrave Place, 6150 acres ; Prospect Hill 

 district, including Toongabbie and the west side of Seven Hills, 9345 

 acres ; Baulkham Hills, 3880 acres ; Field of Mars and eastern farms, 

 5050 acres. 



Tn 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, nearly every ship that arrived from England 

 carried cattle, averaging from one to twenty head of the various Bri- 

 tish breeds. Cows that were brought out for the ship's use were, as 

 a rule, sold on the wharf at Sydney ; the larger numbers were gene- 

 rally on consignment to either the Government or wealthy settlers. 



During those years much correspondence was carried on between 

 the colonial authorities and the British Government with a view of 

 getting cattle from Madagascar instead of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 the Madagascar cattle being considered by the colonial authorities 

 superior to the Cape cattle, the latter being merely crossbred buffaloes. 



In 1791 his Majesty's ship Gorgan arrived from Cape of Good Hope 

 with one bull calf and sixteen cows on board. The Marquis Corn- 

 wallis arrived from same place with a consignment of cattle for the 

 Government consisting of 158 cows and 20 bulls. 



In 1793 Captain John Macarthur had increased his herd of Long- 

 horned cattle to fifty head, valued at 1850; and the Rev. Mr. Marsden 

 was considered the largest and most successful farmer in New South 

 Wales. During this year the cattle, the offspring of those few head 

 which strayed away from the settlement whilst Captain Phillip wa^s 

 busily engaged clearing and fencing in a vegetable garden somewhere 

 near Hunter-street, were discovered at what has since been known as 

 the Cowpastures. Their numbers had increased beyond modern cal- 

 culations. 



The ships Shah Hormuzear and Daedalus arrived in 1793. The 

 former had on board one bull and twenty-four cow;s, and the latter had 

 six bulls and twelve cows. These cattle were sold at the wharf on 

 their arrival. The ship Endeavour arrived in 1795 with 132 head of 

 cattle, consisting of six bulls, sixty cows, twenty-four calves, and 

 forty bullocks. 



During 1797 there were landed in Sydney the following numbers of 

 cattle : 6 bulls and 77 cows. 



It will thus be seen how the foundation of the immense herd of 

 calttJe wa& laid in the county of Cumberland during the first decade 

 of our history. In the following decade, from 1797 to 1807, we^ per- 

 ceive from abundant facts that cattle raising had become a most im- 

 portant branch of industry. At a sale of cattle belonging to Mr. 

 \A illiam Cox, conducted by Mr. Robert Campbell, whose saleyards 

 were where the Union Club now stands, a Longhorned-Durham bull 

 brought 86, a Longhorned bull 57, a red and white Ayrshire bull 

 brought 37, a Devon bull brought 35 ; two Shorthorn cows brought 

 120. and twenty cows brought 1226. Mr. Cox's dairy farm was 

 situated in W T oolloomooloo. 



In 1803 the grant to John Macarthur, an ex-officer of the New South 

 Wales Corps of 10,000 acres in the centre of the coveted Cowpastures 

 caused much discontent. At the same date the value of cattle is in- 

 dicated by the following sale prices : Shorthorn bull, 86 2s.; Long- 

 horn bull, 37 6s.; black and white Ayrshire bull, 25 45.; a pure 

 Shorthorn cow, 79 i6s.; and 28 cows, 1526. Next year Governor 



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